Employee Competencies in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: A Systematic Review from Southeast Asia

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the industry 4.0 based technologies is becoming omnipresent and changing the workforce environment from traditional to digital and virtual. While technology continues to evolve, new jobs will be created and the job landscape requires advanced competency elements for new employment forms and processes. The demand for some occupational skills will decline, while others grow, and the transition is likely disruptive, with skill requirements shifting significantly. In the Southeast Asia (SEA) region specifically, there has been a rapid increase in the adoption of AI but empirical approach to competencies is still underdeveloped. Hence, this study sought to fill this gap by conducting a systematic literature review on the competencies required during the intervention of AI in the SEA region. This study conducted a systematic review following the PRISMA publication standard. The articles were selected from two main databases of Scopus and Google Scholar. Based on the thematic analysis, the results revealed four main themes, namely i) technological competency; ii) cognitive competency; iii) social and emotional competency; and iv) change management competency. The four main themes have further produced 15 sub-themes highlighting the uniqueness of human soft skills that are still required although AI is adopted. Based on the pattern of past research, the review presented several recommendations for further consideration by scholars, organisations and communities.

Adult Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: The Human Resource Development Perspective

“…As a result of the evolving nature of technology in educational and workplace environments, the activities, operations, and philosophy of humans have become interweaved with digitalisation such as artificial intelligence (AI) and other of its interconnected systems (Baki et al, 2023;Kang, 2023;Poquet & Laat, 2021). From the perspectives of Ardichvili (2022); Baki et al (2023); Kang (2023); Laupichler et al (2022), AI also known as technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), is explained as the ability for humans to adopt the use of computers and its accessories for decision-making, in order to resolve problems which are deemed complicated through the automation of adult teaching and learning along with workflows, as this is achieved through the transformation of knowledge and competencies which arises from deploying computers and machines in mimicking the human intellect. In addition, other similarly-situated accessories which complements the efficiency of AI, comprises of machine learning and vision, natural language processing (NLP), robotics, chatbots, computer vision, along with speech recognition and expert systems, etcetera (Ardichvili, 2022;Baki et al, 2023;Poquet & Laat, 2021;Yorks et al, 2020).…”

“…From the perspectives of Ardichvili (2022); Baki et al (2023); Kang (2023); Laupichler et al (2022), AI also known as technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), is explained as the ability for humans to adopt the use of computers and its accessories for decision-making, in order to resolve problems which are deemed complicated through the automation of adult teaching and learning along with workflows, as this is achieved through the transformation of knowledge and competencies which arises from deploying computers and machines in mimicking the human intellect. In addition, other similarly-situated accessories which complements the efficiency of AI, comprises of machine learning and vision, natural language processing (NLP), robotics, chatbots, computer vision, along with speech recognition and expert systems, etcetera (Ardichvili, 2022;Baki et al, 2023;Poquet & Laat, 2021;Yorks et al, 2020). Therefore, as a result of the technological advancement which brought into being AI, human interaction in learning and workplace environments and how roles are being handled, together with the educational settings for adult learning processes have overtime evolved.…”